Skills I Learned From Youtube that Improved My Life!

I love Youtube. A lot. I’m usually always telling someone about something I have watched recently or sharing links to the latest goldmines with friends and family. Just in the last two months I have drastically improved four areas of my life by stumbling upon videos that were able to change the way things done in my home!

My husband and I have been not so joyfully riding the financial crisis in Perth. Faced with job uncertainty and at times just plain unemployment. This has meant we have been trialling and making the best of a pretty frustrating situation which started the week before Christmas 2015 when we were both made redundant. Blerg.

So here they are:

Tinting my lashes and brows at home.

I was pretty new to lash and brow tinting and was really iffy about at-home tinting kits. I also really enjoyed going to the salon where the beautician would give me the most amazing arm and hand massage while waiting for the dye to develop. However after the unemployment happened I thought I’d give it a shot! I picked up two packets, one in the Darkest Blue (I think) and the other in Natural Black. Each one was about $20 each, which if they are meant to be for 12 applications I was already good for 2 years. My normal Tinting appointments were about $36, so I have already saved heaps.

Next course of action was to find an accompanying video to teach me what I wanted to know. I wasn’t a fan of the videos that were recommended or made by the tinting company, and several other videos really made it look tragically hard. That is, until I found this one! Sure it doesn’t show the eye brow tinting but you get a good idea from watching how to make the formula and how it applies. If you’ve had a fair amount of experience filling in your brows with powers, gels or pencils, you’ll likely not have any issues. Its really not any different except you’re using dye.

Pros: Saves me money, I do a better job myself, I always have fantastic brows

Cons: I miss my hand massages

2. Cutting my kids hair at home.

So, I was really skeptical about this. But my daughter was pretty adamant about not going for a hair cut. Her hair was so long and hard to keep tangle free. I didn’t want to be the mum who cut her hair and made an awful mistake, to only have to eat my pride and take her to a salon to get it sorted. (The boys I have taken to with a set of clippers before, but I had been trying not to because I wanted to steer away from the “buzz cut” kind of look.)

This video was so convincing though! I watched it really carefully and followed the steps with only one real difference being that I wasn’t aiming for a blunt cut. I deliberately cut into the ends to create a more “even-but-not” bob cut. My daughter actually watched this video with me which really helped her feel comfortable with the process and excited even! I’d never used anything other than a pair of clippers before and the entire afternoon was spent doing her cut, but it was worth it and she loved it.

This same Youtube Chanel has videos for doing better styling with the clippers as well as other long hair haircut styles. I’ll most definitely be tuning in again!

Pros: I learned a new skill, It saves me money, I didn’t stuff it up.

Cons: It was time consuming the first time, My hands were swollen afterwards and my knees hurt from bending onto the tiles when checking my cuts were level.

3. Cleaning.

I have always had a love for a clean home but after a few years of me and my husband working full-time we didn’t really notice how incredibly lazy and wasteful we had all gotten. Watching this video really inspired me and gave me some good pointers and language for reteaching clean home habits to my kids. Suffice to say that the last few weeks I have been driving them all nuts, chasing them around the house, yelling out “whose shoes are here?” “put your dish in the dishwasher” and my personal favourite “put your crap away or it goes in the bin”.

Room by room, our house is becoming minimalist and easy to keep clean. I haven’t really saved any money here, but I am saving extraordinary time and energy on feeling overwhelmed and stressed out that I live in chaos. I no longer do! Better still, my nagging is paying off! I have see it invigoratingly changing the respect my children have for their personal belongings as well as mine! Win win!

Pros: My home is looking amazing, The kids are learning to be clean, My husband appreciates my organisation, I am not insane and stressed out and I feel GOOD about our home!

Cons: ? NOPE

4. Being more frugal.

Yes! I know this is actually two videos but she is amazing and I love her approach! These videos heavily inspired me to find ways to be more frugal thinking. Even though a lot of things she talks about are from the U.S it can still apply here. I went through our spending and was able to find several ways to cut out direct spending but also the indirect costs we hadn’t been considering until the bills came in. Things like reducing the use of the dryer, dishwasher, and use of power by turning off lights, tv and other electronic items.

I also had a win the other day when I was ordering from menu log and I noticed at the check out that it asked for a coupon code, so I googled “menu log coupons” and guess what I found! That’s right! A coupon code for 10% off! YAY!

We reduced our shopping list to what we actually need and use within a week because I have found that there had been a lot of panic buying at the store and weekly wastage of food that gets forgotten. Now we only shop if we need to. We use whatever we have and empty the fridge before heading to the store.

I have also been systematically going through the house and finding things to sell! Things that I had reasonably been meaning to get rid off, but had been putting off. This also plays into the minimising and decluttering I have incorporated into our home. We are still in the midst of finding a solid savings strategy but are definitely on our way!